Is the CCleaner bad rep true?

Yes, CCleaner is part of Avast now. Which is part of Gen Digital/Symantec Corporation. Avast has become a cancerous growth within the security software industry. Everything it touches dies - bringing the host (end/enterprise customers) with it.

I remember when Avast was good... Now it's no different than McAfee. What a shame.

Yep. This does the job. Whoever downvoted the comment is a bell end.

now Microsoft also have pc cleaner. people will start using it instead of 3rd party app; just like microsoft's antivirus.

how much is it reliable... this software Kudu ?

Your browser offers to clean browser data.

I remember when McAfee was good. They popularized the shareware model (without the nagging too!). They were the best antivirus available, and most home users used them for free. How times have changed.

I want to get rid of stuff like old cache files made by programs Windows comes with Disk Cleanup, run it as admin. I'd use the free version of CCleaner and I'm looking for free alternatives specifically. Don't look for freeware alternatives, look for free (and open source) alternatives. Bleachbit exists, though I don't know what you aim to achieve in the end that you couldn't achieve with Disk Cleanup and WinDirStat.

I remember when it was discovered that avast signature downloads were 3 copies of the same thing, but it was made to look like there were 3 times as many signature updates as there really was.

Bleachbit does offer to clean browser data like cache, cookies, etc. Disk Cleanup doesn't.

Yes they have a bad rep. Yes its deserved. Cleaning up those files is snake oil and doesnr matter.

Risky since about 10 years ago.

Glary Utilities has a free version and a few other system tools that come with it, check it out https://www.glarysoft.com/glary-utilities/download/

Try Bleachbit, it’s free and very competent.

It’s not been needed for a generation now.

To me, CCleaner is a virus. I had problems with it since win98, saying theres tons of virus, It let me do 2 or 3 (free) , and i question it. Lucky I knew another one that was originally for servers, and it works and free for 3 months, nd it didn't find any virus. So, otherwise its connect to windows, delete it .

I use Privazer to clean up all the crap on my SSD.

I use an old version of CCleaner (5.40.xxx) which is one of the last "good" versions and deactivated the updates. Works fine on W11. I like that it's quick, but the MAIN feature that most other cleaning tools don't offer is that I can very easily whitelist cookies. I don't want to delete all cookies, for some selected sites that I use on the daily they are actually helpful.

About 9 years ago, their build environment was compromised and attackers inserted malware into legitimate CCleaner updates: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-unnerving-supply-chain-attack-that-corrupted-ccleaner/ That was the point at which I switched from being merely circumspect about which of its features I used, and deciding to stop using it altogether.

i use https://github.com/builtbybel/FluentCleaner it's the best

Look at the wise disc clean up tool

I have uninstalled it and moved to Kudu instead. It is an open source and free alternative. https://usekudu.com/

You can give try native windows app called Windows PC manager which has cleanup feature and for me it's not bad.

Try wise disk cleaner Free

I abandoned CCleaner some time ago I now use PrivaZer and it works fine for what I need it to do.